Virtual Worlds: from Cyclorama to Metaverso

Fundación Telefónica Movistar and the Lima Art Museum (MALI) present Virtual Worlds: from Cyclorama to Metaverso, an exhibition that explores the boundaries between physical reality and digital simulation, examining the effects of the proliferation of virtual worlds on our lives.

We increasingly inhabit digital environments that shape and even condition our physical reality, with the boundaries between the two becoming ever more blurred. These spaces allow us to remain interconnected while simultaneously compelling us to adapt to a new reality in which both worlds converge. On a personal level, this hybrid environment has transformed the ways in which we interact, shop, work, learn, and entertain ourselves.

Thirty years after the advent of the internet, the term cyberspace seems to have become obsolete, no longer capable of capturing the omnipresence of the virtual in our everyday lives. We now speak of new forms of digital experience that are increasingly immersive, capable of extending essential aspects of our lives beyond physical reality. For the first time in human history, the drive to create simulated worlds has culminated in the possibility of leaving our natural environment behind and living immersed in an entirely different one.

The exhibition presents a journey through more than 50 works, spanning from nineteenth-century panoramas to augmented reality and the phenomenon of Second Life. What might it mean to migrate our identity into a space where physical embodiment does not exist? What impact might it have on society to become part of a community that exists between the physical and the virtual? What rules and codes should govern digital citizenship?

Artists including Marc Lee, Cao Fei, Solimán López, Johanna Jaskowska, and Inés Alpha, alongside the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, raise questions about the migration of identity into spaces without physical embodiment, the implications of creating digital alter egos, and the societal impact of belonging to communities that exist between the physical and virtual worlds. These challenges and concerns invite reflection on the ethical norms and codes that should govern digital citizenship.